Updated 9:30 am, Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Midland Public Schools received the highest possible assessment on its audit for the 2014-15 school year, Board of Education members were told Monday night.

“It’s a clean audit,” said CPA Dave Youngstrom of Yeo and Yeo. “It’s the highest level of assurance we can give.”

Yeo and Yeo gave MPS an “unmodified opinion,” which means that no modifications were necessary.

Youngstrom confirmed earlier statements from MPS officials that the district ended the 2014-15 school year with a much smaller gap between revenues and expenditures than earlier predicted.

His presentation showed that the shortfall budgeted at $1.4 million in summer 2014 was reduced to $494,000 a year later.

Youngstrom also presented a graph demonstrating that the district’s fund balance has shrunk 42 percent since 2011 due to ongoing shortfalls, from just under $15 million to $8.8 million. The drop slowed dramatically in the year just ended, and Superintendent Michael Sharrow said he is hoping for a balanced budget by the end of the current school year.

The audit also found “no material weaknesses or significant deficiencies” in the district’s internal controls.

Also Monday, the board approved a purchase order for asbestos abatement work to be performed as part of demolition of Cook, Parkdale and Mills elementary schools and classrooms at the former Central Middle School. The $636,000 purchase order was awarded to Quality Environmental Services Inc. of Gladwin and will include removing pipe and pipe fitting insulation, boilers, tank insulation, breeching insulation, windows and doors, flooring, plaster, caulks and other materials.

Sharrow said district officials have met with city engineers to discuss the intricacies of demolition and added that demolition work could begin in late November or early December. The work at Central could begin in December after holiday programs end at the building’s auditorium.

Classrooms at the Central site will be demolished while the auditorium, gym and cafeteria will be renovated. The demolitions and renovations are being funded by the bond proposal approved by voters earlier this year.

Sharrow also said enrollment trends so far this school year are positive.

“We’re still feeling very, very good about that,” he said. “We’re trending well … We’ll probably beat our budgeted number significantly.”

The state fall student count day is early next month. State funding is based on enrollment.

Also at Monday’s meeting, members of Midland High School’s Kiva Club described their program to the board. The group, which has seen its membership climb in recent years from about 10 students to more than 50, is affiliated with Kiva Microfunds, a California-based nonprofit organization that enables people to lend money via the Internet to low-income entrepreneurs and students in 86 countries.

The Midland High club has made more than 650 “micro-loans” totaling over $16,000 in 48 countries. The students raise funds throughout the year, and also welcome donations which can be made through the Kiva website, www.kiva.org.

The loans are made in $25 increments, and club advisor John Mulvaney, a Midland High economics and history teacher, said the default rate on the loans is just 1.4 percent.

The group also participates in local community service projects and has given grants to other Midland High clubs.

Board members also Monday approved the acceptance of a $10,000 donation from Verizon for the district’s elementary STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programs. The plan for the Central campus is to remake it into a STEM elementary campus, and district officials have said the STEM concept eventually will be part of all MPS elementary schools.

Sharrow said the Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation has indicated it plans to donate $850,000 toward the district’s STEM strategy, and he added that talks are under way with Saginaw Valley State University that could lead to a STEM partnership.

Sharrow’s September “Shining Star” awards were given to Northeast Middle School teacher Jason Merry and MPS-TV specialist Billie Dumont-Oliver. Also announced at the meeting were the Distinguished Service Awards for 2015, which were given earlier this month to Interim Director of Technology Dave Dziedzic, H.H. Dow High School Paraprofessional Deborah Morgenstern and Cindy Young, Sharrow’s administrative assistant.